To the Editor:
Porky: (noun) British rhyming slang - a lie. Canadian Oxford Dictionary
On November 2 I had the opportunity to represent the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), along with Allen Oberg, at the legislative hearings held in Ottawa to "discuss" the dismantling of the CWB.
That same evening the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, also addressed the committee.
There is no way to hide from the reality that the Conservative government is simply mocking Parliament and mocking western farmers with its smothering of debate and its false statements to the people of Canada. What kind of porkies was the Minister telling? Here are just a few examples:
[Without the Wheat Board] "There's going to be a lot more (wheat, durum, and barley) going to market positions earlier and get us away from starting our trucks and augers at minus 40 in January." Gerry Ritz, Nov. 2, 2011 Legislative Committee Hearing. So the Minister is saying that farmers do not have to deliver non-Board grains-flax, canola, peas etc. in bad weather conditions? With Canada's small logistics pipeline to the west coast, and grain companies wanting to ship even more grain west without the CWB involved in logistics planning, this statement from the Minister is a "porky" of the first degree. Remember this statement the next time you have to start a truck or auger in bad weather.
"I've never been allowed to attend a board meeting. They've always said "now's not a good time, the directors don't really want to hear from you". There's a number of different reasons that I've been told and I was never allowed to attend a board meeting." Gerry Ritz, Nov. 2, 2011 Legislative Committee Hearing. Another blatant porky. Letters of invitation for the Minister to meet with the CWB Directors are on file at the CWB, starting in 2008. The last written invitation was for him to attend the Board's meeting on Oct. 12 and 13, 2011.
The Minister's testimony is full of porkies just like ones above.
I'm not afraid of an informed debate or a difference of opinion. But I am afraid of a Minister of the Crown that can make such knowingly false statements to the people of Canada. And I am afraid of the underling Conservative MPs that support such mocking of Parliament and farmers. Theirs is one steamroller that needs to be stopped.
Stewart Wells, Swift Current, SK.
